Nations & Empires: Documents on the History of Europe and on its Relations with the World since 1648

336 Pages·1969·36.099 MB·English

by  R. C. Bridges, P. Dukes, J. D. Hargreaves, W. Scott (eds.)

NATIONS AND EMPIRES
Documents on the History of Europe and on
its Relations with the World since 1648
NATIONS & EMPIRES
Documents on the History of Europe and on
its Relations with the World since 1648
edited by
R. C. BRIDGES, P. DUKES
J.D. HARGREAVES & W. SCOTT
Department of History, University of Aberdeen
Macmillan Education
ISBN 978-0-333-10598-6 ISBN 978-1-349-15338-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-15338-1
@ Introduction and editorial matter R. C. Bridges, P. Dukes,
J, D. Hargreaves and W. Scott, 1969
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1969 978-0-333-10541-2
First published 1969 by
MACMILLAN AND CO LTD
Little Essex Street London WC2
and also at Bombay Calcutta and Madras
Macmillan South Africa (Publishers) Pty Ltd Johannesburg
The Macmillan Company of Australia Pty Ltd Melbourne
The Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd Toronto
StMartin's Press Inc New York
Gill and Macmillan Ltd Dublin
Library of Congress Catalog no. 76-85482
Contents
List of Maps and Diagrams 8
Preface 9
Acknowledgements II
Chapter One: Absolutism and its Critics rs
I The French Nobility Complains to Louis XIV 15
.2 Fenelon Complains to Louis XIV .20
3 Police Report on Popular Reaction to the Capture of Cambrai,
I677 .26
4 Temple on the Dutch Government and People .27
5 Alexander Gordon's Appraisal of Peter the Great 32
6 Catherine the Great's Political Confession 35
7 Peasant War in Russia 43
8 The Encyclopedia Advances the Enlightenment 48
9 The Dutch Urged to Join the Atlantic Revolution 52
Chapter Two: The French Revolution and Napoleon 55
10 The Grievances of the Third Estate 56
II The Principles of the National Assembly 65
I2 The Terror at Lyon 67
13 Robespierre and the Revolutionary Government 77
14 The Babeuf Conspiracy of I796 79
I 5 The French Revolution and Europe 82
16 Napoleon and Europe 87
Chapter Three: Europe Overseas to the Revolutionary
Period 91
17 The Dutch East India Company and Colonisation in Ceylon 92
18 New France 96
19 Atlantic Trade 98
.20 An Assessment of Eighteenth-century Overseas Enterprise 101
.2I New Horizons 103
.2.2 Implications of the French Revolution in the Caribbean 107
23 Revolutions in the Western Hemisphere 109
6 Contents
Chapter Four: Nationalism, Socialism and Reaction ns
24 Towards the Vienna Settlement n6
25 Metternich's European Outlook 122
26 Mazzini's Concept of Nationalism 126
27 Marx and the 1848 Revolution in France 131
28 Palack)J, Czech Nationalism and the Austrian Empire 135
29 The Commune 140
30 The Rise of the German Empire 143
31 The Effects of Industrialisation 145
32 Antisemitism and the Dreyfus Case 148
33 The End of Russian Absolutism 152
Chapter Five: Europe Overseas in the Nineteenth Century 154
34 Emigration 155
35 Mter the Slave Trade 158
36 The Celestial Empire Rejects Europe 161
37 India 164
38 Landward Expansion 168
39 From Informal Empire to German Empire 171
40 The New Imperialism 174
41 Securing the Route to India in the Heart of Mrica 179
42 The Scramble for China r8o
43 A New Imperial Power 183
44 Informal Empire in the Middle East 184
45 The Radical Conscience and the Congo 187
Chapter Six: International Rivalries and the First World
War 191
46 Germany's Special Relationship with Austria-Hungary 192
47 Overseas Expansion and European Alignments 195
48 French Attitudes to Germany, 1905 198
49 A British View of German Policy 201
50 German War Aims 208
51 Trench Warfare and the Soldier 211
52 The Conditions of Peace 215
Chapter Seven: The Russian Revolution and Stalin 224
53 The February Revolution 224
54 The October Revolution 226
55 Trotsky on October 227
56 A British Report on Bolshevism 233
Contents 7
57 The Kronstadt Revolt 239
58 Lenin on Dangers Confronting the Revolution 241
59 Stalin Considers the Forced Pace of His Revolution 248
Chapter Eight: The Second World War 256
6o A New International Order? 257
61 Fascism 261
62 Japanese Expansion 268
63 Hitler's Germany and Europe: An Early British Reaction 270
64 France and the German Revival 273
65 Soviet Foreign Policy 275
66 Germany's United Europe 279
67 Total War 284
68 Preparations for Peace 287
Chapter Nine: Decolonisation 292
69 In Behalf of his Countrymen 293
70 New National States in the Middle East 295
71 The Comintern in China 299
72 Indian Nationalism 303
73 Imperial Reconstruction? 306
74 'He Who Enlightens' Declares Independence in Indochina 309
75 Some Roots of West Mrican Discontent 312
76 Prelude to Mau Mau 314
77 The Third World 317
78 International Pressures 320
79 Mter Empire 324
Chapter Ten: A Perspective of the Mid-196os 329
8o General de Gaulle surveys Europe and the World 329
Index 335
LIST OF MAPS AND DIAGRAMS
Diagram of Systeme des Connaissances between pages 50 and 5 I
Map of the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 297
Preface
THIS anthology has grown out of the working experience of a group
of university teachers concerned to introduce first-year students to
methods of historical study by reference to contemporary documents
on some of the problems of European history since 1648. A single
volume of texts obviously could not hope to cover the period in a
comprehensive manner. This collection therefore attempts to elaborate
certain themes, the nature of which is implied in the titles of the
chapters and in the introductions to them. Each of the themes is an
aspect of the basic process of European history in the modem era, which
we take to be the consolidation and expansion of the states comprising
the Continent and their readjustment to rising super-powers on the
oceanic and continental frontiers and to changing conditions in Mrica
and Asia. Although we regard Europe as a meaningful entity, we
strongly believe that its modem history can be understood only if its
relations with the rest of the world are given full consideration. Hence,
three chapters (Three, Five and Nine) are devoted to these relations
while two more (Six and Eight) consider the world wars and their
backgrounds not only as episodes in relations between European
governments but also in wider and deeper perspectives. Within
European states, some of the varied attempts by governments and
statesmen to develop social and political institutions which could
guarantee internal order in a period of accelerating change are
examined (Chapters One and Four). The great occasions when they
most significantly failed to do so and when new ideas and expedients
were tested with far-reaching results - the French and Russian
Revolutions - are treated in considerable detail (Chapters Two and
Seven). The final chapter (Ten) provides a coda to the collection in the
form of a tour d' horizon of Europe and the world in the mid-1960s by
an historically minded European statesman. The chosen documents
generally emphasise the socio-political aspects of our themes; while
10 Preface
not ignoring economic and cultural forces, we have given comparatively
less attention to them.
Although the editors have differed somewhat in their individual
approaches to particular chapters, they have all agreed on making their
selections with certain ends in view. Each document is intended to
illustrate an important aspect of the evolution of modern Europe or of
its relations with the world although in some cases the nature of the
illustration may emerge only after careful scrutiny of the text itself or
its context. Essentially, therefore, these documents are aids to study;
they should prove suitable for use either in critical group discussions
or as illustrations to lectures. The editors have in some cases added a
few special suggestions for further reading in the notes which introduce
each document. Providing general bibliographical guidance for the
whole of the period is, however, a formidable problem, beyond the
scope of this volume; the least unsatisfactory of the available solutions
is that of A Bibliography of Modern History, ed. John Roach (Cambridge,
1968).
This collection of documents could not have been completed without
the advice and other forms of assistance given to the editors by many
friends and colleagues. It is impossible to mention all those who have
been so generous with their help but we express particular thanks to
Miss Rosemary Tyzack, Mrs Margaret Stone, Miss Ann Williams, Miss
Elizabeth Smith, Mrs Ann Gordon, Mrs Jill Bridges and Miss
Dorothy Smith, to Mr J. Forsyth, Mr C. Gossip, Mr R. Hallett,
Dr J. Houbert, Dr E. Ranson, Dr G. Molland and Mr 0. D. Edwards.
The editors are also grateful to the authors and publishers of copyright
material which we have been allowed to use; a list of acknowledgements
is appended below. Translations of documents, unless otherwise in
dicated in the footnotes, are our own. His fellow editors would like to
thank R. C. Bridges for co-ordinating their efforts and assuming the
major share of the work involved in bringing the collection of documents
together.